dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle’s blog

Fifth Friday footnotes, follow-ups, and far-flung fripperies:
• Surveying this week’s election results, one detail mystifies me. Why aren’t the votes for Measures 66 and 67 identical? I’ve read dozens of commentaries on the tax measures, but never saw one that split the difference between the two.
• I don’t quite understand why I launder my washcloths.
• If your grocery store has two entrances, I’ll bet you almost always use one and not the other, and you don’t really know why.
• Never trust a driver wearing a full-brimmed hat. Unless it’s Betty Snowden.
• Has any product ever been so maligned as polyester? I predict a comeback — under a new name, of course.
• After reading Don Tykeson’s essay a couple Sundays ago, I got to thinking how the absence of a sales tax may attract more ne’er-do-wells to Oregon. Income taxes only scare away those who have or hope to have high incomes. The Oregon town with the most college students without specific career goals might bear the largest brunt. Hmmm.
• After we bear a brunt, can we do anything else with it?
• Egalitarianism is anarchy dressed for company.
• Don’t mess with how other people decorate their refrigerator doors. Just don’t.
• How could I feel nostalgic for Cingular? But I do.
• Anticipating historic speeches from Barack Obama and Steve Jobs on the same day, I dreamt that they combined them with a sleek device that made participating in democracy as easy as buying a song for 99 cents. It was called an iVote.
• I stopped eating most junk food about the time they started lining the bags with that space age silvery material. Space food sticks never caught my fancy either. Or Tang.
• When I first came to Oregon, I was amazed how cheap Christmas trees were, until I learned that groups raise money by disposing of them for you. Life cycle cost: about the same. I have friends who prefer to tromp in the woods to get a tree for free, but none who admit to returning their tree to the forest after December.
• Every Post Office’s automated postal center receipt has printed on the bottom, “It’s a pleasure to serve you.” Since no human helped me, that seems creepy.
• Why does winter darkness seem darker than summer darkness? Just because there’s more of it?
• I was once a stoic, but it didn’t feel right. Then I became a minimalist — it was the least I could do. I tried being a philanthropist, but it did nothing for me.
• Eugene does everything slowly. You’d think that a town known for its rain would do at least a few things precipitantly.
• James Cameron’s “Avatar” could be seen as a bold artistic statement against obesity. Ignore the McDonald’s “Avatar” Happy Meals.
• Politicians would do well to stop confusing centrism with bipartisanship. Voters don’t care if their leaders like each other, so long as things get done.
• If you just happen to know which streets are paved with asphalt and which with cement, then you understand the torture of being unable not to notice.
• Can we have zero tolerance for intolerance? Can we be fundamentally opposed to fundamentalism?
• I’m afraid all my children know about long-term commitment, they’re learning from their cell phone companies. It starts with romance, but ends with a contract “to have and to hold” — a hand-held device.
• Biopsy analysts don’t do surgery themselves. Paper doll artists have assistants. These people have their work cut out for them.
• I believe Massachusetts voters wanted to send a message to one politician who they believed had been given too much power. Most knew this man only from TV, but some remembered his years as their neighbor. They were trying to rebuke Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman.
• When was the last time an American family couldn’t play cards because they lacked a card table?
• Isn’t it strange that the same people who want government to become more transparent also want us to keep an eye on its every move?
• A sharp knife makes everything easier. Everything.
• Show me a house where three-way switches are connected to one-way bulbs, and I’ll show you people choosing simplicity for its own sake.
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Don Kahle (fridays@dksez.com) Writes a weekly column for The Register-Guard and blogs.

The Chinese students’ quandary has haunted me for weeks. Eugene attorney Ilona Koleszar recounted it to Register-Guard reporter Jack Moran, after the students met with Eugene Police Chief Pete Kerns. Kerns told the student who was Tasered and his roommate that the police “find no fault with the students in this incident.”
The students appreciated the meeting, but near the end they got agitated. They pressed Kerns. “They said, ‘We don’t think you’ve told us whose fault you think this is,’ ” Koleszar recalled.
Kerns met with the students to apologize, but not to accept blame. The department’s internal investigation also did not blame Officer Judd Warden. The blame currently rests with policy and training. In other words, we’re blaming “the system.” It’s nobody’s fault.
Sound familiar?
After Underwear Bomber Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab nearly succeeded in blowing up an airplane heading for Detroit, President Obama admitted that the system failed “in a potentially disastrous way.” Vital intelligence was gathered, but the system failed “to connect the dots.”
Likewise, in November, the U.S. Senate opened its investigation into the Fort Hood massacre with this decree: “Our purpose is to determine whether that attack could have been prevented, whether the federal agencies and employees involved missed signals or failed to connect the dots….”
“We failed to connect the dots” cleverly absolves each dot-keeper. The blame is fixed to a mythical Connector of All Dots. It’s mythical because that Dot-Connector cannot be wrong. Ever. Once a U.S. Senator lands on a no-fly list, or a misspelling creates a confusion, the dot system becomes fallible, and we lose trust in the system. We worry that additional costs are incurred or our liberties are curtailed “for no good reason.”
Only a Dot-Connector with infinite resources and infallible wisdom can be counted on to always connect the dots before a tragedy connects them for us. Good luck with that.
Return now to our Taser controversy.
Police do difficult and dangerous work, day in and day out. We shouldn’t expect them to do it perfectly. They are everyday heroes, but their mistakes can be no less outsized. Cops must connect dots, some of which may be fuzzy or misplaced, in real time. Mistakes are inevitable. The “system” should shield officers not from blame, but from revenge.
We don’t throw a parade for every officer who saves a life. We’d run out of ticker tape, because it happens every day. And we shouldn’t fire a cop who makes a bad judgment in a split second. But the system should allow Warden to accept responsibility, take the blame, say it was his fault, admit he was wrong, ask for forgiveness, apologize, be sorry — whatever you want to call it — without springing a trap of legal liability.
Accepting responsibility is just one more act of everyday heroism we should be able to ask of our police officers. Instead, we blame the system, arguing that everyone shares responsibility, so nobody has to own it.
Kerns says the policy for Taser use is being re-evaluated. But even that gets complicated. Policy is being reviewed by the Eugene Police  Commission, which is appointed by the City Council. Any recommendations proffered by this citizen panel goes to the Chief, who works for the City Manager.
Meanwhile, the Sept. 22 incident with the Chinese students was analyzed by the police department’s internal affairs division. The department’s findings were then adjudicated by the Chief of Police. The finding and the process used is now being evaluated by the Civilian Review Board and the independent Police Auditor. The board and the auditor may make separate or joint reports to the Eugene City Council.
Then, based on the multiple policy reviews and the sundry incident reports, the policy may be changed by the city council. Oh, and did I mention that a recent Ninth Circuit Court ruling about Taser use may also have to be considered?
Everyone agrees there are lots of dots to be connected. But the students’ concern is simpler — more like a single welt.
“They don’t want the publicity, but they feel more and more like something wrong happened here,” Koleszar said.
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Don Kahle (fridays@dksez.com) writes a weekly column for The Register-Guard. He blogs.

Last week I wrote that downtown Eugene can’t become any of the vibrant things we hope for until it’s first safe, clean and attractive. In that order. But I was wrong. Something important precedes even safety. Call it credibility. Downtown has to matter.
“The community has to make downtown matter,” says downtown property owner David Davini. “Or else it won’t.” He feels downtown has lost a decade or two. “Oakway matters. 5th Street matters. For too many people, downtown doesn’t matter.”
Downtown property owners formed Downtown Eugene Inc. (DEI) to make downtown safe and clean, but they overlooked its credibility issue, the same way I did. Downtown has stayed the same, while other parts of town have grown past it.
DEI board chairman Gerry Gaydos agrees. “It bothers me that a town as great as this doesn’t have a downtown that tells its story.”
Davini has been a downtown business owner for twenty years, and he was a DEI board member for “way too long.” He’s fuming, and frankly, a little embarrassed.
“We operated DEI the way plenty of non-profit boards operate. Our board members were involved, but not committed. We relied on staff to give us adequate information at our monthly management meetings, and apparently we didn’t always get that.”
Russ Brink served as the executive director of DEI since it was formed in 1988. He did many good things for downtown. He and I worked together on First Night, an alcohol-free New Year’s Eve celebration. He brokered a deal that saved the Eugene Celebration. He fought to get streets opened. He defended downtown.
Was Brink committed to downtown, using Davini’s distinction, or merely involved? If a chicken and a pig get together to make some ham and eggs, the chicken’s involved, but the pig has to be committed.
Greg Fleener was committed. He owned and operated Cafe Paradiso downtown for 11 years. The business climate and downtown’s micro-climate eventually bankrupted him. I tracked him down in Colorado, where he’s rebuilding his life. He didn’t offer too much in response, except to say “Eugene is a tough town.”
In 2007, the DEI board began exploring radical ideas to free up more operating funds. DEI elected to hand off its administrative overhead to the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce in 2008, and Brink stayed on for a three-month transition.
In the summer of 2008, Brink left Eugene to become the executive director for the Rockingham Area Community Land Trust in Springfield, Vermont.
That move should have saved DEI almost $100,000 per year. But so far, most of that savings has gone into cleaning up messes that Brink left behind. Nobody will admit to anything more than confusion, but a criminal investigation is ongoing. When the confusions mounted to the point of requiring a full audit of DEI’s financial records, Brink told a Register-Guard reporter that things were more complicated than they seemed. He asked for patience and understanding.
That was nearly a year ago. I’ve tried to reach him a couple of times. Others have too. He hasn’t returned my calls, except an e-mail message this week that offered the Internet-equivalent of “no comment.”
Brink left his Vermont job in September. His former employer also offered no comment on his departure, but the abrupt change surprised many in Vermont.
Longtime Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dave Hauser knows the feeling. He recalls the moment when he first got surprised. Brink had just left for his new job. “I went into the cubicle that Russ had been using, because I needed a file or something. I looked down into his waste basket and saw a bunch of torn up bank statements. I thought, this can’t be good.”
The audit followed. Sorting through the financial records has taken almost a year and consumed all of the administrative savings so far. “We expected the transition to consume energy and resources for the first six months. It’s taken us eighteen,” says Hauser. “That’s the bad news. The good news is we’re just about up to speed now.” Downtown may now be on the cusp of having the vision and leadership — and credibility — to make its vibrancy matter.
Return to Davini’s distinction. Downtown may benefit from more people being involved. But what really matters is those few who are committed.
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Don Kahle (fridays@dksez.com) writes a weekly column for The Register-Guard. Past columns are archived right here.

Whenever Eugene makes its list of New Year’s Resolutions, revitalizing downtown is always near the top. So it should come as no surprise that the city has hosted open houses this week and is launching a website (www.vibranteugene.org) to gather ideas and momentum for revitalizing downtown.
Jerry’s Home Improvement has Christmas lights for half off. Bi-Mart is displaying their vast array of storage bins. Health clubs have slashed initiation fees. Everybody wants to lose ten pounds before swimsuit season. And Eugene wants your ideas for improving downtown. Happy New Year.
Eugene city staffers this time are taking their cue — or cues — from a divided city council. They have separated this community conversation into two parts. First they want to hear what Eugene residents would like for their downtown. How to pay for any improvements will be part of the later discussion.
A two-part conversation may be a political necessity. Some city councilors believe downtown should be a higher priority and merits greater funding. Other city councilors fear throwing good money after bad. Getting both sides to agree to pay for improvements won’t be easy. Nobody wants to flush money down a rat hole, especially if it might not at least rid them of some rats.
So crafting a vision before asking for money makes some sense. As the Mad Hatter told Alice in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
But the Mad Hatter didn’t live in the real world. Watergate informant Deep Throat did, and his advice may be more relevant in this instance: “Follow the money.”
Everyone agrees that downtown first must be safe, second clean, third attractive. Once those three basic needs are met, then people will come and businesses will open and the virtuous cycle of commerce can begin.
In 1988, Downtown Eugene Inc. (DEI), a private association of downtown property and business owners, was formed to care for downtown’s most basic needs. DEI contracts with the city to administer the city’s Downtown Services District. The “red caps” you see downtown are funded by DEI. If you’re downtown early in the morning and you see a person with a leaf blower, that’s probably also DEI money being spent.
But follow the money. DEI is funded by a Special Services District Occupancy Fee. The enabling city ordinance specifically exempts empty buildings.
You can see the logic. An empty building produces no revenue, and should require no services. So why charge the property owner when nobody is using the space? I’m sure that made sense on paper, but the real world again suggests a different logic.
Busy storefronts have merchants inside. They open their doors and sweep their sidewalks. They shoo away miscreants. They call the police when things get out of hand. Empty buildings don’t do any of that. Empty buildings cause most of the trouble downtown, yet their owners pay less for the services that aim to keep downtown safe, clean and attractive.
Follow the money to one source of the problem. Downtown property owners pay less if their buildings are empty, but those empty buildings cause the problems that require money to fix. The vision and the funding are intertwined, even if those two conversations about downtown are being kept separate.
Other cities have used a vacancy tax to get property owners to fill their buildings. That might be worth exploring, but an easy first step in that direction would be an amendment to the city’s ordinance. It still can be called an “occupancy fee.” A building occupies space downtown, even if nobody occupies its spaces inside.
Once downtown property owners are required to pay the fee, whether their space is occupied or not, they’ll begin to see what the rest of us see. Only through a Lewis Carroll Looking Glass could downtown’s blight look bright, but that’s the distorted view we’ve created for property owners. For the past 20 years, we’ve rewarded downtown landlords who refuse to fill their buildings with tenants.
Correcting that mistake would be a good place to begin the new year, and it should be easier than losing those extra ten pounds.
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Don Kahle (fridays@dksez.com) writes a column each Friday for The Register-Guard. Past columns are archived at www.dksez.com.

Votes are in. Yams are slightly less sweet than sweet potatoes, but more colorful (orange). From now on, I’ll just buy whichever’s cheaper.

Every holiday meal included turkey. And mashed potatoes. And gravy. So yams were like cranberries. Good for color, but nothing worth attn.

How did it come to this? Don’t blame my parents. (After 50, there are fewer & fewer to blame.) I blame gravy, which doesn’t go with y/s.p.

Paprika makes them look alike, but the top pan is yams. Both have a spicy coating. Will the sweeter spice better? http://twitpic.com/v8qrm

Sweet potatoes are on top. They look like creamed corn. (I have memories.) Yams are orange — creamed carrots? http://twitpic.com/v8o5u